His Majesty Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has called on professional golfers in the country to seize the moment and create opportunities for themselves. He described as shameful the situation where professional golfers heavily relied on local clubs to organize golf events before they could participate to win some cash.
He made the call during the closing ceremony of the 2013 MTN Asantehene Gold Cup in Kumasi that attracted well over 300 golfers to the Royal Golf Club. He opined that, industry stakeholders needed to find means where professionals could organize their own tournaments.
He however demanded of the local Professional Golf Association (PGA) to show the way in order to realize the full benefits of being professionals. “As professionals, you must find a way to entice companies to support your game,” he said.
The owner of the Royal Golf Club wondered how professionals in the country expected to be meaningful when they would not do anything other than to wait for clubs to organize tournaments before they could play and earn some income. “They (professionals) should be able to sustain themselves by creating opportunities that will make them self-sufficient,” he said to a loud applause from golfers present. He also used the occasion to challenge managements of golf clubs to innovate exciting business ideas in running the clubs. “With all due respect, we must run the golf clubs as business,” he said, adding: “we cannot be running to MTN and other companies with cup in hand every day to ask for support. We should be able to run this as business, to make us self-sufficient.” His Majesty further admonished golfers that are culpable of cheating on the course to put an end to the habit.
He explained that, “honesty should be the cardinal point when we play; the whole idea is sports, so one could win someone could lose, but in winning or losing, we must do the right thing to win and never to cheat,” he warned.
The 56th Asantehene Gold Cup brought together golfers from across the country and the sub region to be part of what turned out to be an exciting golf festival. The Asante King on Saturday night prior to the closing ceremony held a feast for golfers and guests at the Manhyia Palace.
The event attracted hosts of sponsors that included MTN, CAL Bank, Beige Capital, Bel-aqua, Coca Cola, GGBL, Virgin Atlantic and Fly540. Royal Golf Club’s Kwabena Poku won the main event after posting a remarkable score of 143 over two days whiles Vincent Torgah emerged champion in the Pros Division. Story by Collins Oppong The Golfer newspaper
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